John M. Ford
| birth_place = East Chicago, Indiana, USA | death_date = September | death_place = Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = }} John Milo "Mike" Ford (April 10, 1957 - September 25, 2006)"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J5TC-LZN : accessed 16 Feb 2013), John Milo Ford, 25 September 2006; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing). was an American poet, science fiction and fantasy writer, and game designer. Life Ford was born in East Chicago, Indiana, and raised in Whiting, Indiana. (Discussion of the article and a few factual errors in it by fans.) In the mid-1970s he attended Indiana University at Bloomington (IU), where he was active in the IU science fiction club and Society for Creative Anachronism (using the name Miles Atherton de Grey); while there, he published his 1st short story, "This, Too, We Reconcile" in the May 1976 Analog. Ford left IU and moved to New York to work on the newly-founded Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, where, starting in mid-1978, he published poetry, fiction, articles, and game reviews. Although his last non-fiction appeared there in September 1981, he was tenth most frequent contributor for the 1977–2002 period.James Patrick Kelly, On the Net: Frequent Fliers, Asimov's 4/2003. See also [http://www.asimovs.com/cgi-bin/searcheng.cgi?searchstring=ford Ford's entries in the Asimov's index]. About 1990, he moved to Minneapolis. In addition to writing, he worked at various times as a hospital orderly, computer consultant, slush pile reader, and copy editor. 38 in 2003. Photo by David Dyer-Bennett. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.]] Ford was regarded (and is described in obituaries, tributes and memories) as an extraordinarily intelligent, erudite, and witty man. He was a popular contributor to online discussions. He composed poems, often improvised, in both complicated forms and blank verse, notably Shakespearean pastiche; he also wrote pastiches and parodies of many other authors and styles. At Minicon and other science fiction conventions he would perform "Ask Dr. Mike", giving humorous answers to scientific and other questions in a lab coat before a whiteboard. Ford suffered from complications related to diabetes since childhood and also had renal dysfunction which required dialysis and, in 2000, a kidney transplant, which improved his quality of life considerably. He was found dead from natural causes in his Minneapolis home on September 25, 2006 by his partner since the mid-1990s, Elise Matthesen. He was a prominent member of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library, which established a John M. Ford Book Endowment after his deathhttp://www.friendsofmpl.org/Friends_member2005.html with the donations to be used as interest-generating capital for yearly purchase of new books. Writing Though Ford's novels varied in setting and style, several were of the Bildungsroman (coming-of-age) type: in Web of Angels, The Final Reflection, Princes of the Air, Growing Up Weightless, and The Last Hot Time, Ford wrote variations on the theme of growing up, learning about one's world and one's place in it, and taking responsibility for it — which involves taking on the power and wisdom to influence events, to help make the world a better place. Otherwise, Ford's works are characterized by an aversion to doing things that have been done before. This is perhaps most notable in his 2 Star Trek novels, The Final Reflection (1984) and How Much for Just the Planet? (1987). The Final Reflection is the story of a small group of Klingons who prevent a war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation while the regular series characters are relegated to cameo appearances. (This novel introduced the fictional language Klingonaase.) In the comedic How Much for Just the Planet?, the Enterprise crew compete with a Klingon crew for control of a planet, whose colonists are not happy with this and defend their peace in inventive ways, which soon make everything a farce, including a Vaudevillian pie fight. The book includes song lyrics that satirize many 20th century stage musicals. Both novels present the Klingons in a relatively positive light, not just as the token evil menace of the week. (It has been suggested that Ford's sympathetic portrayal of Klingon culture influenced the later canonical TV and movie depictions of honor-driven Klingons such as Worf; certainly it influenced many Klingon fans. At the same time the books gave strong hints that the United Federation of Planets was not quite the shining utopia of goodwill and interspecies fellowship generally depicted in the television series. Ford avoided repetition not only of the work of others, but also of his own work. Where many writers make a name for themselves by developing a known style that repeats in many books, Ford always surprised with his ability to use a variety of styles that best suited the world, characters, and situations he had chosen to write about. (As John Clute expressed this in 1993 in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: "Two decades into his career, there remains some sense that JMF remains unwilling or unable to create a definitive style or mode; but his originality is evident, a shifting feisty energy informs almost everything he writes, and that career is still young.") This might have limited his readership, however he was much respected by his fellow writers, editors, critics and fans. Robert Jordan, Ford's lifelong close friend, called Ford "the best writer in America — bar none." Neil Gaiman called Ford "my best critic … the best writer I knew." Patrick Nielsen Hayden said "Most normal people had the slight sense that something large and super-intelligent and trans-human had sort of flown over ... There would be a point where basically the plot would become so knotted and complex he would lose all of us." Ford published a variety of short fiction and poetry, from short short stories that are essentially fantastic jokes, to novellas revealing a deep understanding of human frailties and emotions. His poem "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" won the World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction in 1989. Ford published some children's fiction under pseudonyms that he did not make public, and two children's gamebooks under house names Michael J. Dodge (Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure, 1984) and Milo Dennison (The Case of the Gentleman Ghost, 1985). Ford plotted 3 issues of Captain Confederacy alternate history comics in the late 1980s and wrote issue number 10, "Driving North." Ford also contributed to The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (2001, Tor Books, ISBN 0-312-86936-3), drawing some of the maps. Footnotes Recognition Awards * 2005 Origins Award for Role-Playing Game Supplement of the Year – GURPS Infinite Worlds 4th Edition * 1998 Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy & Science Fictionhttp://www.thinkmhc.org/Book/1998.htm – From the End of the Twentieth Century * 1993 Philip K. Dick Award – Growing Up Weightless * 1991 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement – GURPS Time Travel * 1989 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction – "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" (in Invitation to Camelot, edited by Parke Godwin) * 1989 Rhysling Award for Long Poem – also "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" * 1985 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement – The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues * 1984 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel – The Dragon Waiting Nominations * 2005 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection – Heat of Fusion and Other Stories * 1996 Nebula Award for Best Novelette – "Erase/Record/Play" (in Starlight 1, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden) * 1996 Theodore Sturgeon Award – also "Erase/Record/Play" * 1995 Rhysling Award for Long Poems – "Troy: The Movie" (in Weird Tales, Spring 1994) * 1991 Rhysling Award for Long Poems – "Bazaar Day: Ballad" (in Liavek: Festival Week, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull) and "Cosmology: A User’s Manual" (in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1990) * 1990 Rhysling Award for Long Poems – "A Holiday in the Park" (in Weird Tales, Winter 1988/1989) * 1987 Nebula Award for Best Novelette (final ballot) – "Fugue State" (in Under the Wheel, edited by Elizabeth Mitchell) Publications Poetry * Timesteps: A selection of poems. Rune Press, 1993.John M. Ford: A chronological bibliography, Boskone 34, New England Science Fiction Association. Web, Aug. 14, 2014. Novels *''Web of Angels''. New York: Pocket Books, 1980. *''The Princes of the Air''. New York: Pocket Books / Timescape, 1982. *''The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History''. New York: Timescape Books, 1983. *''Blackstone's Magical Adventure: The Case of the Gentleman Ghost'' (as "Milo Dennison"). New York: Tor, 1985. *''The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues: A Paranoia Adventure''. New York: West End Games, 1985. *''The Scholars of Night''. New York: Tor, 1988. *''Fugue State''. New York: Tor, 1990 *''Growing up Weightless''. New York: Bantam Spectra, 1993. *''The Last Hot Time''. New York: Tor, 2000 ''Star Trek'' *''The Final Reflection: A Star Trek novel''. New York: Pocket Books, 1984. *''Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure'' (as by Michael J. Dodge). New York: Pocket Books, 1984. *''How Much for Just the Planet? A Star Trek novel'' .New York: Pocket Books, 1987. individual titles Short fiction *''Casting Fortune''. New York: Tor, 1989. *''Heat of Fusion, and other stories''. New York: Tor, 2004. Non-fiction *''On Writing Science Fiction (The Editors Strike Back!)'' (with George H Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer). Philadelphia, PA: Owlswick Press, 1981. Collected editions * From the End of the Twentieth Century (short stories, poetry, and essays). Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 1997. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.Ford, John M., Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, July 3, 2014. Web, Aug. 14, 2014. Games * The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues. West End Games, 1985 ISBN 0-87431-027-X), an adventure for the Paranoia roleplaying game * Star Trek III (with Greg Costikyan and Doug Kaufman). West End Games, 1985. * GURPS Time Travel (with Steve Jackson). Steve Jackson Games, 1991 ISBN 1-55634-115-6), a resource book for the GURPS roleplaying game * GURPS Y2K (with Steve Jackson et al.) Steve Jackson Games, 1999 ISBN 1-55634-406-6), a resource book for the GURPS roleplaying game * GURPS Traveller: Starports. Steve Jackson Games, 2000 ISBN 1-55634-401-5), a resource book for the GURPS Traveller roleplaying game * GURPS Infinite Worlds (with Steve Jackson and Kenneth Hite). Steve Jackson Games, 2005 ISBN 1-55634-734-0), a resource book for the GURPS roleplaying game * Ford further wrote Klingon manuals for the Star Trek role-playing game, and a number of RPG articles, which appeared in Autoduel Quarterly, Pyramid, Roleplayer, Space Gamer, and Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society. *In The Final Reflection he described a chess-like game played by Klingons, klin zha, which has been adopted by Klingon fandom. See also *List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poetry *"De Vermis" * "110 Stories," poem written about the September 11, 2001 attacks *"Troy: The movie," 1994 poem * Winter Solstice, Camelot Station, 1989 poem ;Prose * "As Above, So Below", short story (in Dragons of Light, ed. Orson Scott Card, Ace Books, 1980) * "Driving North", short story written as the script for issue 10 of Captain Confederacy * Mike Ford: Occasional Works – Part One to Twelve and Coda: selection of Ford's comments to Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden's weblog Making Light, with links to context * Quote from "Playing Scrabble with God", another * Ford's USENET posts 1994–5, in Google Groups archive ;Books *John Ford at Amazon.com * * John M. Ford: A Chronological Bibliography up to 1997 by New England Science Fiction Association * Bibliography with cover scans at Fantastic Fiction ;About *John M. Ford at NNDB. *Ford, John M at the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction * – fan/memorial website * John M. Ford, game designer at BoardGameGeek.Com * Teresa Nielsen Hayden: [http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008033.html Making Light: John M. Ford, 1957-2006]. With links to online works by Ford, articles, weblog posts and memories about him etc. * Memory of Ford by his aunt Jane (Harley) Starner * Will Shetterly: An Introduction to John M. Ford * Neil Gaiman: [http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2006/09/ten-years-ago.html Introduction to From the End of the Twentieth Century] * Steve Jackson: Daily Illuminator article remembering Ford * Eric Burns, Websnark: Requiescat in Pace, John M. Ford with discussion of Ford's influence on Klingons in Star Trek * John Clute: Obituary: John M. Ford, in The Independent * Andrew Brown: column on London memorial gathering for Ford, in The Guardian * David Langford: John M Who? SFX December 2006 * Peg Kerr: personal journal entry on the Minneapolis memorial gathering * The Society for the Preservation of Mike - a LiveJournal community * Photos tagged "JohnMFord" at Flickr.com * More links remembering John M. Ford * Strange Horizons 2002 interview with Ford * Patrick Nielsen Hayden's 2001 online interview with Ford (and other inkWELL participants) * Alex Krislov's 1980s interview with Ford Category:1957 births Category:2006 deaths Category:Alternate history writers Category:American fantasy writers Category:American gamebook writers Category:American poets Category:American science fiction writers Category:Cyberpunk writers Category:Indiana University alumni Category:People from East Chicago, Indiana Category:People from Minnesota Category:Role-playing game designers Category:World Fantasy Award winning writers Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets